THE comedian John Cleese, below, is associated with a phrase akin to “extremely obvious”.

You know the one I mean.

I was reminded of this recently when I received a letter from Northern Rock, the bank based in Newcastle upon Tyne.

It referred to their Save Direct automated telephone service and read as follows: “Feedback received from our Save Direct customers indicates that they would prefer to speak to a person rather than an automated machine. We have listened to this and therefore, on 15 October, 2011, we will withdraw the 24-hour Automated Save Direct Telephone Service”.

In future people with queries will be able to “speak directly to our knowledgeable staff in our UK-based contact centre”.

Well done Northern Rock.

That sounds like a small return to sanity and suggests that some efficiency-obsessed executive made the wrong call in the first place.